The Leopard softball team has been exceeding expectations as they moved up to 4A along with the other Leopard teams, but they’ve been presented with many more obstacles than most other sports programs on campus.
The team, who fields 9 at a time, only has a roster of 12 players, three less than last years 15 girl roster.
“The smaller roster this year has created some obstacles with injuries. We are using the JV team as a traditional baseball farm team,” head coach Amanda Douglas said. “If we have open positions due to injury or even conflicts with other LISD activities, and our varsity girls cannot fill those positions, then we are using the JV team players to step up instead.”
While the team is small, thanks to some significant changes, the results have been big as the team is undefeated in district play.
“The team has made a lot of progress defensively. We have changed around our coaching responsibilities due to two new coaches, and the pitchers and catchers are getting a lot more individual attention,” Douglas said. “Our infield has improved dramatically because of a new infield coach as well. We have stepped up our game defensively throughout the season, and as always, we have done an excellent job offensively. We have become more and more aggressive as base runners which has allowed us to score more runs this year.”
The players don’t necessarily see the limited roster as all bad though.
“The smaller roster means that everyone needs to be more flexible and ready to play any position at any given time,” junior Autumn Keefer said. “It teaches us all to be more diverse and creates more pros than cons to it.”
The move to 4A put the Leopards up against new competition. With new competition came new challenges because the teams had never seen each other before.
“The other teams in our district have a lot of potential of being very competitive. We have stepped up each game and played at our level, except for one game in district. McKinney North is our toughest opponent at the moment, but Royse City, Sherman, and Denison all have some really great players on their roster,” Douglas said. “What we have dominated thus far is our opponents’ pitching, so I hope the second round of district will prove to be the same.”
Pitching has been a strong point for the Leopards for a while now with senior Brittany Lewis and sophomore Danielle Brochu. Lewis is committed to continue playing softball at Stephen F. Austin University.
The Lady Leopards have started off the season well, 11-0 in district play so far and hope to continue their dominance in spite of their small roster.
“It’s always tougher the second round of district because teams make their adjustments,” Douglas said. “So we have to continue to adjust ourselves in order to stay one step ahead of our competition in district.”
